Salmo man pleads guilty to 2009 Creston murder

Nearly two years after committing the crime, a 35-year-old Salmo resident has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Randall Werner Claassen.

Barney Wayne Keizer was sentenced to an automatic life imprisonment term with no eligibility for parole for 10 years. He also was ordered to provide a DNA sample for the National DNA Data Bank Registry and issued a lifetime prohibition from owning or possessing firearms.

The body of Claassen, 29, was found by hikers west of Creston in the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area on May 12, 2009. Claassen was a Creston resident.

Keizer first appeared before a justice of the peace on September 12, 2009.

Police said in 2009 that Claassen and Keizer were associates and that Claassen was shot.